In light of China’s ‘Belt and Road’ initiative, many mainland Chinese universities have been promoting non-English foreign language degree programs at the undergraduate level. This study examines the growth of these non-English foreign language programs by collecting and analysing a variety of data on curriculum design, teachers and learners through online and archive research. The results from the analysis problematise the development of non-English foreign language degree programs in Chinese universities. Although the analysis identified a significant leap in the growth of non-English foreign language programs, many of these programs need to address a variety of challenges including ‘unrealistic’ curriculum objectives, teacher shortages, and attracting high quality applicants. While the rapid expansion of non-English foreign language degree programs potentially enables Chinese universities to play a critical role in promoting the learning and teaching of non-English foreign languages in China, it has become imperative for these universities to engage in carefully coordinated efforts so that this growth can be sustained.

This qualitative study investigates the process of family language policy and planning among a group of immigrant mothers with south Asian backgrounds in Hong Kong, and explores the underlying cultural, socio-political and ideological reasons. Moving beyond a discrete analysis of family language policy within the home context to incorporate elements of historical time and space, the data analysis shows that family language policy is shaped by individuals’ cultural affiliations, future imaginations and their experiences across the contexts of school, community, workplace, host society and home country. Furthermore, broader social and ideological realities also impact individuals, and thereby influence family language policy. The findings suggest that South Asian families may face difficulty in maintaining their children's heritage language literacy, and that the immigrant mothers’ lack of local educational experiences and limited knowledge of the Chinese language may disadvantage their children in terms of educational opportunities. Providing an in-depth understanding of bottom-up language practices, language planning and implementation in immigrant home contexts, this study has implications for policy makers in terms of language education and provision.

We focus on the learning of English in a Chinese university in Jiangsu and the university’s preferential language policy, which allowed Uyghur minority students from Xinjiang to be enrolled despite their lower scores in the entrance examination. Guided by the constructs of language ideologies [Kroskrity, P. V. (2000). Regimes of language: Ideologies, politics, identities. Santa Fe, NM: School of American Research Press] and language regimes [Sonntag, S. K., & Cardinal, L. (2015). Introduction. In L. Cardinal & S. K. Sonntag (Eds.), State traditions and language regimes (pp. 3–26). Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press], we adopted an ethnographic approach [McCarty, T. L. (2015). Ethnography in language planning and policy research. In F. M. Hult & D. C. Johnson (Eds.), Research methods in language policy and planning: A practical guide (pp. 81–93). Malden, MA: Wiley Blackwell] to investigate how Uyghur students viewed their English learning and how the university responded to macro-level national language planning decisions to foster social harmony. Our findings revealed that the minority students were marginalized in their study of English and disadvantaged compared to Han students. Consequently, we argue for a consideration of the impact of power inequalities in relation to English language learning. Such a critical perspective entails (1) acknowledging the disadvantaged position from which these minority students began their formal education because English was a third language for them [Yang, J. (2005). English as a third language among China’s ethnic minorities. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 8(6), 552–567] and (2) recognizing that access to English education is not equitable because students who attend schools in economically developed provinces such as Jiangsu are more likely to get a better education in English than those from a less developed province such as Xinjiang.

The adoption of English medium instruction (EMI) in higher education has gained popularity in China's tertiary education as a result of globalization. International students in Chinese universities are celebrated as part of soft power projection to extend China's global impact. Informed by Piller and Cho's concept of “Neoliberalism as language policy” (2013) and Collins' “social reproduction theory” (2009, 2012), this study attempts to explore the EMI learning experiences of a cohort of international students at a border university in China. The policy documents, in-depth interviews, classroom observation, reflective journals and online interactions converge to reveal that, international students in EMI programmes experience exclusion and inequality despite the welcoming discourses of diversity. The paper highlights the necessity to pay attention to the ways in which higher education institutions reproduce inequalities of social stratification of international students through explicit and implicit institutional practices. It is argued that EMI policy in China's peripheral regions targeting international students from less-developed countries tends to perpetuate and accentuate educational inequalities. The study sheds light on a more inclusive pedagogical approach to alleviating international students' marginalisation and educating students of diverse linguistic, cultural, socioeconomic backgrounds for global citizenship in the context of China's Belt and Road Initiative.

In recent years, as a response to the internationalization of higher education worldwide, China has begun to enroll international students to study at the tertiary level on an increasingly large scale. While the majority of the programs and courses are open to international students via Chinese as Chinese-medium instruction (CMI), there are also an increasing number of programs and courses delivered through English-medium instruction (EMI). In order to understand higher education multilingual contexts, this qualitative study examines how local students and faculty members make sense of their engagement with international students in three Chinese universities. In the study, we conducted in-depth interviews with 11 academics who worked with international students as project supervisors and 25 Chinese university students regarding their experiences of working with international students. The findings that emerged from the thematic analysis revealed that international students’ learning engagement was profoundly mediated by language barriers, cultural assumptions and the academic conventions in host institutions. The study revealed that Chinese academics are concerned about international students’ learning attitudes, their academic progress and a lack of participation due to their language ability. Local Chinese students also reported a lack of satisfaction in working with international students. Some of the local students felt that some international students may have been enabled to enroll in the academic programs as a result of national and university policies, which has led to a ‘dumbing down’ of the curriculum offered in English. The findings indicate that more needs to be done to promote mutual exchanges and better understanding among international students, Chinese faculty members and local students.